This is a long term study examining student technology use in their lives. Lots of stats.
Very valuable.
Powerful because we can look at factors like age, ethnicity, parent education. We can starkly see the difference between students' tech use outside of school and their use of it during the school day.
How does it connect to the achievement gap? How do the different types of media affect achievement (is there, for example, a negative correlation between TV and achievement but a positive one between creative uses of technology like blogging and achievement? - not sure)
Gen YES program in action (kind of like the Tech Helpers we had, but more structured).
Cindy
4/8/10
Discussed how children K-12 grade take part in curriculum that teaches authentic usage of technology. Children whom have had extra training help teachers to plan lessons that involve technology. Student teach the technology portion to the classes.
Puts children in great leadership positions and teaches collaboration with adults. Children teaching teachers about technology. Nice idea.
Why WordPress (a blogging platform) is a good idea for a student ePortfolio format.
I like the author's points and think that a blog is a great way to house an ePortfolio. However, unless we host WordPress or the district unblocks Edublogs, it is not a possibility at this time. If this is ever the way we want to go we have to work to arrive at one of these two solutions.
This is just a general overview of the different formats of e-portfolios that students can use to store and add information throughout their school career. The blog seemed the most user-friendly and would be the easiest transition for teachers to use. Students would need an example blog to set up their e-portfolio and a format in which to follow. Students would also have to be familiarized with the standards so they would be able to upload artifacts and explain their reasoning for putting those artifacts into that standard. This is a helpful guide to get teachers started.
This is much like the above article except it focuses on the advantages of going digital. This is a great way to persuade teachers and administration to move into the digital direction.
Mixed Topics
The Horizon Report
Kelli
5-1-10
Current trends and cutting edge technologies
Some of the future trends anticipated include: mobiles in classrooms, using collaborative environments, game-based learning, augmented reality (like Second Life).
There is a section where they list future research topics. This list was quite extensive and had some things that we would want to check out at a later date.
I focused on the section titled, How Can Technology Influence Student Academic Performance? There were six subsections and I found 4 that would be beneficial to us. The articles range from 1997 to more current research. The basic point of the articles is that using technology every day and when it is closely tied to the curriculum will benefit students the most. These could be used to "convince" reluctant participants.
In all there were 7 sections. These sections outlined the importance of having a solid plan for technology hardware and software implementation. Most of the research was from 1996 and talked about early programs with Microsoft and Apple in assisting schools with developing these plans. This would be helpful in pushing for more time to plan and find ways for teachers to use technology with our curriculum.
A meta article reviewing different frameworks of viewing technology education.
I can't tell how old this article is. I don't think the frameworks are something we need to integrate into the continuum; I think the ISTE standards as well as maybe the MEMO standards will suffice for guiding our continuum development.
(Reader: Please determine if we should look further at any of the resources here and pick a few to really look at. Don't feel like you have to read everything)
Site lists right for children/teachers around technology exposure and STEM.
Something that committee and general teachers should have read to know where we are headed. Nice downloadable document that outlines the objectives of the plan. Some pages lay out the issues succinctly. Could be directly used with staff, parents, or kids.
Guidelines resembling standards for education agencies and districts to improve technology integration in five areas:
Learning
Assessment
Teaching
Infrastructure
Productivity
Available as a .pdf download at the link. In draft form as of April 2010.
This isn't something that would directly impact our planning at Valley, but it is worth keeping our eye on it, especially as we continually advocate for quality technology integration.
A lot of status quo challenging in this document. It will be interesting to see what it evolves into.
The author considers how we should treat information in an age of instantly accessible facts.
Implications for instruction and assessment in all areas. If new literacies involve accessing and utilizing information properly, not just knowing it, then how can our continuum help move these ideas forward?
A 5th grade class uses a Survivorman episode and backchannel chat to deepen their learning.
A really neat example of how utilizing technology (in this case, laptops and a free chat program that the students participate in during a video) can help the students deepen their questioning, thinking, and connections. (Probably can't view at school but maybe)
Powerful because we can look at factors like age, ethnicity, parent education. We can starkly see the difference between students' tech use outside of school and their use of it during the school day.
How does it connect to the achievement gap? How do the different types of media affect achievement (is there, for example, a negative correlation between TV and achievement but a positive one between creative uses of technology like blogging and achievement? - not sure)
Nice downloadable document that outlines the objectives of the plan. Some pages lay out the issues succinctly. Could be directly used with staff, parents, or kids.
- Learning
- Assessment
- Teaching
- Infrastructure
- Productivity
Available as a .pdf download at the link. In draft form as of April 2010.A lot of status quo challenging in this document. It will be interesting to see what it evolves into.